GOP race for Council keeps Sprunger, ousts Weiland

When the dust had cleared in the Adams County Clerk’s office from counting votes Tuesday night in the primary election, Republicans assured incumbent county councilman Cory Sprunger of another shot at a fouryear term but went a different direction in the fourth district by naming Robert E. (Bob) Rhoades as their candidate over incumbent Yvette A. Weiland.

Sprunger rejected a challenge from Brent Luginbill in the third district by a 669-522 count while Rhoades took twothirds of the vote in his race for a surprisingly easy 499-252 triumph.

Those two council races were among the highlights of the evening as Sprunger and Weiland often found themselves paired in opposing views from the other members of the County Council with 4-2 votes occurring on more than one occasion

In another spirited Republican encounter, current Adams County Clerk James ( Jim) Voglewede, Jr. sought approval from voters for a four-year stint as Adams County Surveyor since he had served two terms as clerk and was not eligible to run again due to term limits.

Voglewede went up against licensed surveyor Mike Werling and the race went decidedly in Werling’s favor by a vote count of 2,0111,420, a different of just over 17 percent. This was Werling’s second try for the office as he was edged in the GOP primary in the past by incumbent Paul Norr.

A much-watched race for county commissioner in the second district found three non-incumbents vying for the nomination with former county councilman Steven R. Bailey the winner with 1,662 votes compared to 1,071 for former county councilman Randy Colclasure, and Kenneth (Kenny) P. McCullough with 617.

The competition for district 79 Indiana state representative was swept up by Berne insurance agent Matthew S. Lehman, the incumbent, over Ossian police officer Russ Mounsey. The district includes all of Adams County, the majority of Wells County, and part of Allen County including Monroeville and Hoagland.

Lehman easily captured the vote on his home turf going 2,5541,022 in Adams County for 71.42 percent of ballots cast in his race. Mounsey, a first-time candidate for state representative, was not able to demonstrate that same strength in Wells County and the final vote overall was listed at 5,268 for Lehman and 2,596 for Mounsey, a 2-1 victory margin for the 14-year state representative who as House Majority Leader is the third top Republican in the House.

State Senator Travis Holdman will be on the GOP ballot this fall again as he was unopposed and had 3,047 Adams County votes. United States Senator Todd Young is seeking a second six-year term and was unopposed at the state level. He picked up 2,996 votes in the county.

A total of 20,86 percent of the 19,908 registered voters in Adams County turned out Tuesday to cast either a Republican or Democrat ballot. The majority of those 4,153 voters opted for GOP ballots since only the third district race for Congress was contested on the Democratic side. Democrat party chairperson Barb Engle will be busy in the near future recruiting candidates since only Keith Blythe was the only Democratic county candidate on the ballot this spring. He is the current incumbent second district councilman having succeeded the late John Schultz, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott was a solo candidate for US Senator for the Democrats who will actively be looking for candidates for state senator, state representative, prosecuting attorney, clerk of circuit court, sheriff, surveyor, assessor, county commissioner, and council reps for districts one, three, and four.

The reporting of votes was somewhat different this year than in the past as only five vote centers were used throughout the county including two in Decatur, one in Monroe, one in Berne, and one in Geneva. A registered voter could vote at any of the vote centers so someone who works in Geneva but works in Fort Wayne could have voted in Decatur on the way home.

A total of 1,233 ballots were cast prior to election day either by a paper absentee vote or by a walk-in visit to the clerk’s office in the Courthouse or other special cite established by the Adams County Election Board. That represented 6.19 percent of the votes cast in the 2022 primary election.

For the GOP, Sheriff Dan Mawhorr was the leading vote getter in the county and he narrowly edged out Prosecuting Attorney Jeremy W. Brown 3,271-3,262. Cong. Jim Banks ran unopposed for a new two-year term in Washington, D.C. and he was in the top vote hunt with 3,245. Others running unopposed for the Republicans included clerk candidate Shelly M. Brite with 3,201 votes, incumbent assessor Mary Beery with 3,077 marks, State Senator Travis Holdman registered 3,047. and incumbent first district councilman Fred Velez finished the night with 689 (only voters in the first district allowed to vote there).

One Republican incumbent, Rex. M. Moore, decided not to go for another term as county commissioner in the second district but instead filed for district two county councilman. He’ll face Blythe this fall in the election. Moore posted 726 votes.\

Republican faithful gathered at the Clock Tower Conference Room in Berne to listen to election results Tuesday evening with a large turnout of candidates and party backers. County chairman Steve Justus said he believes the reason behind the success of the Republican Party in Adams County is that “we work hard and we work as a team. Indiana is known as a ‘red’ state and that has trickled down to the county level here. We have our own party headquarters in downtown Decatur and we’re getting a lot of young people and other new faces involved in Republican activities. We also have our own website, adamscountygop, which is updated daily with pictures and other activity we’re involved with.”

Justus admitted he thought the county council races in the third and fourth district “would be close because of the type of candidates we had on the ballot.”

DELEGATE, TOWNSHIP RACES

It hasn’t been too many years ago the party chairperson would have to go out and recruit individuals to serve as delegates to the state Republican Convention that’s held in June where statewide candidates for the fall election will be picked. However, this year there will be no recruiting activity for Justus as 21 Republicans signed up on the ballot to be considered for the 12 delegate spots that Adams County has been given.

Selected to go to Indianapolis for the two-day event will be county GOP vice chairperson Judi K. Merkel, 2,483 votes, Eric Beer with 2,417 votes, Kelly A. Amstutz with 2,386 votes, Matt Dyer with 2,308 votes, Mark P. Merkel with 2,233 votes, Leonard Corral, Jr., with 1,912 votes, Abigail M. Dyer with 1,812 votes, Chad D. Grabau with 1,710 votes, Deatra Peterson with 1,676 votes, Darrell Ehlerding with 1,597 votes, Whitney Peterson with 1,577 votes, and Gerald M. (Jerry) Walker with 1,544 votes.

Other vote getters for delegate to state convention included: Nancy M. Walker 1,471, Charles M. Tooley 1,465, Yvette A. Weiland 1,428, Zachary S. Grabau 1,423, Wesley Haight 1,228, Gary L. Hendershot 1,159, Michael R. Garza 1,097, Fred Velez 1,064, and Michael Sweney 892.

Republicans had three races for township boards in which the top three vote getters are elected.

In Wabash

Township, Mark L. Neuenschwander and Charles M. (Charlie) Tooley led the ticket with 594 and 581 respectively while the third spot went to John Amstutz with 480. Randall Amstutz and Wes Haight also sought the position but were short with 466 and 273 votes respectively.

The Washington Township Board race came down to a onevote margin to decide the top recipient as Michele Barger had 470 to edge past Susan Price Miller at 469. Abigail M. Dyer also moved on to the fall race with 401 tallies while in fourth and fifth were Rebecca S. Dailey and George C. Womack with 251 and 220 respectively.

The Jefferson Township Board slate saw four candidates with Dennis E. Caffee leading with 59, followed by Mark P. Merkel 45, and Mark A. Lehmann

44. Eric Beer was fourth at 39.

Only three races on the ballot did not have a GOP candidate with the Union Township Trustee and Jefferson Township Trustee needing to be filled as does the district three seat on the Geneva Town Council.

Other Republican winners at the township trustee level and their vote totals included: Monica Schaefer, Blue Creek trustee, 80; Jeremiah Lipscomb, French trustee, 108; Kerry L. Steiner, Hartford trustee, 131; Leslie A. Reilly-Green, Kirkland trustee, 99; Gerald M. (Jerry) Walker, Monroe trustee, 448; Darrell Ehlerding, Preble trustee, 125; Fred J. Kunkel, Root trustee, 574; Megan Clouse, St. Mary’s trustee, 94; Jeanene K. Neuenschwander, Wabash trustee, 800; and Corey L. Affolder, Washington trustee, 599.

For township board elections, the following were confirmed without additional opponents: Blue Creek Township– Kyle Roe 72, Ben Templin 53, and Jeffery W. Yoder, 17; French Township– J.B. Baumgartner 88, Doug Hill 98, and Mike Lipscomb 89; Hartford Township– Dawn R. Kreigh 102, Mike Liechty 128, and Dee W. Teeple 104; Kirkland Township– Kim A. Fruechte 108; Monroe Township– Brice E. Amstutz 432, Trisha P. Moser 395, and Nancy M. Walker 372; Preble Township– Micah Borne 102, and Timothy W. Hoffman 111; Root Township– Gunner L. Butler 414, Ryan C. Miller 474, and Michael Sweney 419; St. Mary’s Township–Tony R. Heiser 76, John R (Randy) Johnson 92, and Jim Jones 82; and Union Township–David A. Gerber 59, Steven M. Justus 63, Eric Miller

71.

Agnes Schoch was the only candidate for the Geneva Town Council district two race and she ended up with 138 votes.